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The Free State police have urged parents to take responsibility for protecting their children and reporting any form of abuse to local authorities.
This comes after a 25-year-old man from Tlholong, near Kestell, was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend’s son.
On Thursday, paramedics at a local clinic reported to the police that a two-year-old boy was bruised all over his body.
According to Free State Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Mmako Mophiring, on Wednesday at about 8pm, the boyfriend noticed that the toddler soiled himself. he allegedly assaulted the child with a stick, kicked him, and placed him inside a basin filled with cold water.
On Thursday, at around 12:30pm, the suspect, his 21-year-old girlfriend (the mother of the child), and another family member took the two-year-old to the local clinic for medical treatment.
“The paramedics and police were summoned to the clinic, where the toddler was declared dead. A case of murder was opened,” Mophiring said.
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The boyfriend was arrested and he is expected to appear before the Kestell Magistrate Court on Monday.
Meanwhile, the two Soshanguve sisters, who were shot inside their family home on Sunday, were laid to rest on Friday.
The deaths of Tinyiko Mashaba, seven, from Lesedi Primary School, and Mpfumo Mashaba, four, sent waves of grief through the community after six people, including the girls who were sleeping, were shot and burned in a shack at about 7:30 pm.
“It is reported that armed suspects arrived at a shebeen at Changing Spot Informal Settlement in Soshanguve and fired shots at the patrons. Two of the victims, a male and a female, died on the scene, and the other four were taken to the nearest medical care centre,” Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo said.
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“The suspects proceeded to a shack in the same area where they allegedly set alight the shack where two young girls were sleeping. They were both certified dead on the scene.”
Masondo said preliminary investigations suggest that the suspects were after the father of the girls, who was not at home during the incident, and investigations are underway.
The Gauteng Department of Education dispatched district and Childline social workers to Lesedi Primary School and the grieving family to provide counselling and trauma support.
“This is a devastating loss, and my heart goes out to the family and the entire school community. We call upon law enforcement agencies to bring perpetrators to book. The safety and well-being of our learners is paramount, and such acts of violence are unacceptable and must be addressed with the utmost seriousness,” said Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane.
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